Sh10m farmers’ project in Kenya riles US Senator Paul

A senator in the United States has criticised his country for spending $99,787 (Sh10.3 million) on a project to teach rural farmers in Kenya how to use smartphones to improve their crops.

Senator Rand Paul, who represents the state of Kentucky, characterised the project by the United States Agency for International Aid (USAid) as intended to teach Kenyan farmers how to use Google and Facebook.

Mr Paul highlighted the project among others in his Waste Report this year in which he says the US government wasted a total $563.4 million (Sh58 billion).
The money spent in Kenya went to funding the production of a segment on Shamba Shape Up, a programme broadcast by Citizen TV on Saturday afternoons.

Improve farming

The programme features the hosts, Tonny Njuguna and Naomi Kamau, and agriculture experts advising farmers on how to improve their farms and the segment was meant to help farmers use their smartphones better.

According to Mr Paul’s report, the premise of the USAid assistance on the project was that while farmers could use mobile phones to improve their crops, they were not up to speed on their use and therefore needed training.

He then zeroes in on the reason he thinks this project was a waste of US taxpayers’ funds, quoting a feature story in Modern Farmer, an online magazine.

The story in the magazine says the creators of Shamba Shape Up programme were already using text messages to interact with farmers long before the USAid project.

He also criticised USAid for spending $72,783 (Sh7.2 million) in a study on the viability of airing a localised version of Sesame Street – a children’s show featuring muppets – in Kenya.